Matt Hussey

🙋 BEFORE WE BEGIN 🙋 You can now listen to this newsletter on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts, or just press play below! There’s an odd anniversary being discussed in mental health circles this week: it’s been 50 years since the inception of the term “Stockholm Syndrome”. That’s odd,

Over on Netflix, there’s a fantastic new drama series called Painkiller - based on the brilliant book Empire of Pain. It tracks the story of how the opioid epidemic took hold of America, and how the Sackler family was instrumental in bringing about the healthcare crisis. One of the

Therapy speak is everywhere. Throw a digital stick into the internet ether and you’ll clatter into people being “toxic” or “gaslighting” someone else. Keep going and you’ll find a galaxy of narcissists not maintaining their boundaries, and preventing everyone else from practising self care. Search “gaslighting” on YouTube

“Take a deep breath”, “find your inner calm,” “channel your peace”, and so on. Mindfulness is big business. Mediation apps alone, pull in about $100 million for their owners every year. Zoom out a little further, and the mindfulness industrial complex is a monster. When folded into the Wellness Industry,

Your emotions rot. That’s a phrase you don’t often hear. But using this slightly macabre description of how we feel is a powerful way of understanding how we change. Let me explain. When we think of ourselves, what makes up that idea will be a mix of memories,

If you've always tried to avoid a fuck or bugger when in the company of others, it turns out you might be missing out. That's according to author Emma Byrne and her book Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language. In it